I was glad to help out a fellow Tradganger this past week who needed to sell a one-week old bow with some measure of urgency. We worked out a mutually beneficial deal and I'm thankful to try this wonderful bow.
I have my keepers but always on the lookout for something I feel is special and worth trying.
Well along came such a bow...just too neat to pass up:
2014 Schafer Silvertip 'double carbon', 60" 62@28 (~65# at my draw), Walnut Dymondwood riser with thick phenolic accent stripe to add mass, black glass limb faces with double carbon and Actionwood cores, Walnut Dymondwood tip overlays with carbon accents.
I have casually joked that it is the "King of Beasts" after getting it in my hands yesterday and having a chance to get it tuned up and shooting some arrows. When Mike first listed it with some gorgeous pics I couldn't help but note the similarity to the king of the African savanna:
This is the second Schafer I have owned. The first was a gorgeous 62" 17" riser version, 52@28 with Charcoal Dymondwood riser, Zebrawood veneers, and sheep horn tips formerly belonging to Allen at LRU. I had that bow long enough to test it and admire both the craftsmanship and shooting qualities, but ultimately passed it on so that I could try other bows. Part of me still misses it but I can't keep em all. That bow allowed me to see Dave Windauer's impeccable fit and finish first-hand and also showed me that Silvertips truly are 'a recurve's recurve'. I have been on the lookout for another Silvertip since, whether recurve or longbow. They have a certain mystique and attraction. Something I have no doubt can be attributed to both Paul Schafer's legacy as a man and Dave Windauer's reputation for cranking out functional art.
This new 'Tip is 10# heavier at 62@28 and also has a 17" riser like the lighter one did, but the working limbs are shorter. This actually is better for me. With this 60" version I am right in the sweet spot for draw length at my 29ish draw and I am literally getting every ounce of performance out of this bow.
Aside from the slightly different specs what makes this beauty special is...double carbon limbs! It also features a nice thick phenolic stripe down the center of the riser, and this particular bow has a really sweet heft to it. Not as massively heavy as the Habu with a solid glass riser that I used to own, but with enough extra weight that this bow feels amazing in the hand, solid as a rock. When I first unpacked it and got it assembled and then held it, admiring it, I said to myself "Damn, this FEELS like a $1600 bow." Haha! It's that same sensation you get when you close the door on a high-end car and grab its steering wheel...it just feels GREAT.
Mike told me Dave Windauer took a little extra time to select a really neat looking piece of Walnut Dymondwood for the riser on this bow. The stain has brought out all kinds of browns and golds and it just glows. That's why I started associating it with the majesty of a lion
I got it strung up with the 'chubby' bare stock string that came with it and went outside yesterday afternoon to give it a shakedown. Got it drawn back a few times to warm up my muscles and noticed immediately that this bow, 65# at my 29ish draw, was extremely smooth. The triple carbon Habu of similar poundage I owned for a while was a very very smooth easy drawing bow, but this bow is still a bit more. This may merely be due to the working recurve limbs vs. the hybrid limbs on the Habu, but I am impressed nonetheless. Drawing this one gives the sensation of effortless power and mountains of stored energy. You KNOW that the second you let this thing go it's going to be grins all around.
The arrow setup I chose for testing was a little light for the poundage, only 9 GPP, but I figured it would be enough to get a good sense of the bow's power as well as potential for noise or lack thereof. I let loose the first arrow and was smiling right away with the sound level of the bow with a bare, and 'fat' stock string. Brace was set at 7.25" also, so not very high. This was also promising At this point the bow gave off just a dull resonance from the bare string and there was some subdued string slap noticeable, just what is typical to working recurves, but on this bow with a bare string I got the sense that I could shoot and hunt with it as-is IF I wanted to. Sound level was very encouraging at this stage. I was very excited by what installing silencers, a skinny string and a heavier arrow will do. I went ahead and installed some yarn puffs on the fat string and the sound level went down by an additional factor. Gone was any string resonance and all that remained was just a slight bit of sound from string contact on the limbs. This was shaping up to be one quiet recurve. At this stage, definitely ok to take in the woods. I have a skinny string with rubber cat whiskers arriving soon from Allen at LRU and I know for certain the sound level will go down again. Once I get my arrows from 9 GPP up to 11-12 I can only imagine what this baby will be like. Very very happy with how this bow sounds, and I am a 'longbow guy.' LOL.
As expected, this bow is more dead in the hand than the lighter poundage and mass 62" one was. This bow has the advantage of the heavier riser, the 2" shorter limbs (less moving mass on the shot and more dampening ability from the heavier riser), AND the benefit of the double carbon. The carbon adds stiffness to the limbs which in my experience quells vibration.
Another pleasing observation: this is one of the few carbon limbed bows I have shot that lacks that 'high pitched'/'tinny' sound that they are known for. Firstly, I believe it is because this one does not use foam in the limb construction, secondly Dave Windauer obviously knows how to do this upgrade properly. The limbs are carbon, Actionwood, and glass. The bamboo and carbon bows I have shot are also like this. The lack of high pitched tone is also surprising considering the light arrow I was shooting.
Is it quick? Well at 9 GPP, ummm...YEAH!!! The Habu was a quick bow and I have also had a few other recurve setups that were very fast for their weight but this thing is pretty special. The power this bow exhibits is incredible. I can only imagine the game this bow could harvest with a heavy arrow setup. I think I heard the bow whispering something like "Africa...Africa"
Topic: King of Beasts...Schafer Silvertip Carbon! (Read 3309 times)
